20 Random Facts about Amanda Brocklehurst
by liebedance
Summary: All JKR tells us is that she is a Ravenclaw in Harry's year. But, there is a lot more to Amanda Mandy than that. Written for DAYDverse


Disclaimer: I do not own Mandy Brocklehurst. JKR mentions her briefly in PS, thus claiming ownership.

A/N: This was written to take place in Thanfiction's DAYDverse (based on the fic Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness)

Amanda intensely disliked her full name

Her parents, although naming her Amanda, hardly ever called her anything other than Mandy from the moment they brought her home from St. Mungo's. In fact, the only time she could even remember her parents calling her 'Amanda Jane Brocklehurst' was when she had stolen her mother's wand at age five. Mandy didn't remember what she had used the wand to attempt to do, but she very clearly remembered the punishment she had received. After that, her dislike for the name 'Amanda' intensified so much that, by age ten, all of her official documents and school records had her down as "Mandy Brocklehurst."

She was a painfully shy child

Other people terrified Mandy. Her parents had tried to enroll her in a Wizarding primary school when she was five, but after the teacher had flooed, saying that she hadn't stopped crying since her parents left and refused to speak to anybody, they decided to teach her at home until Hogwarts. This didn't do much for her shyness and she would hide almost any time her parents had guests, choosing instead to sit in her room and make up stories about her stuffed animals.

Her best friend was her cousin, Jason

Really, as a young child, the only person she talked to, other than her parents, was her cousin Jason. Even though he was a squib, his parents exposed him to the magical world as much as possible. When they visited every weekend, he would coax her out of her room and show her things that he had learned in his muggle school and she would tell him the stories that she'd though up the previous week. Jason was enough of a chatterbox to make up for her being quiet and the two of them would play for hours on end.

She almost refused to go to Hogwarts

Even though she was pureblood and had grown up with stories about Hogwarts, she was terrified. Not only would she not be able to spend time with Jason anymore, but by age eleven she was just as shy as she had been six years previously. Her parents had to drag her kicking and screaming to King's Cross Station and, not only when promised that they would write her every day and that if by the end of her first year she still hated it she could leave, did she agree to get on the train. The first few weeks were horrible for her, and she'd cried every night, but by the end of the year not only had she broken through the worst of her shyness, she couldn't wait to go back.

She didn't think she was really smart enough to be a Ravenclaw

When the Sorting Hat had put her in Ravenclaw, she was shocked. She had never thought of herself as particularly smart. She knew she wasn't brave enough to be in Gryffindor or cunning enough to be in Slytherin. Mandy had expected to go into Hufflepuff as somewhat of a castoff. Her feelings of inadequacy as a Ravenclaw persisted until her 3rd year when, by some twist of fate, she mentioned her feelings to Michael Corner who told her that being a Ravenclaw was more about a state of mind than an intelligent quotient.

She loved muggle mathematics

Mandy was first introduced to Muggle mathematics by Jason when he would visit during their childhood. He had shown her his multiplication tables, wanting to share his displeasure, but Mandy had fallen in love. While she hated arithmancy (why use numbers to predict the future and tell things about people when you could as easily make up a story?), there was something comforting and soothing that Mandy found in the rules, patterns, and definitiveness of algebra.

However, her favourite subject at Hogwarts was History of Magic

Mandy loved stories. She loved to tell them, listen to them, and study them. History of Magic was a class based on stories that she could expand upon, giving the historical figures likes and dislikes, creating personal vendettas in political disagreements, and creating love in opposing sides. She knew that the class would be so much more interesting if the teacher could appreciate History the same way she did and, during her first few years at Hogwarts, she longed for the chance to show Professor Dumbledore how she thought the class should be taught.

She loved to sing

She didn't even know that she _could_ sing until Padma had taught her an old Indian song their first year. The two of them would spend hours together, Mandy singing and Padma dancing. When she sang, Mandy forgot about how other people terrified her and let herself come out of her shell. Not being able to sing was the worst part of losing her voice in the Battle and nothing pained her more than not being able to sing her children to sleep.

She genuinely liked her hair

Most girls she knew hated her hair. It seemed to be some sort of law of the universe, but Mandy didn't care. She liked the way light reflected off the brown waves and the way it was just thick enough to tie in a knot without a hair piece. Plus, the copper undertones brought out the blue of her eyes.

She didn't wear jewelry

Honestly, she didn't see the point. Necklaces would so often fall in the ink of whatever story she was trying to write and earrings had a nasty habit of getting caught on things. Also, the fact that her childhood best friend was a boy turned her off anything girly for a long time. The only accessory she wore was a bronze eagle hair piece her mother got her for achieving OWLs in all her classes.

She had a secret crush on Stephen

Stephen was cute, smart, and nice to her. By the time she realized the reason she liked spending time with him was because she had a crush on him, she had figured out that he was gay. Still, she harbored a secret crush for him until their 7th year when her "relationship" with Jack pushed him from her mind.

She regretted sleeping with Jack Sloper

It wasn't the sex itself that she regretted. She knew it was nothing more than two lonely teenagers filling themselves with something other than fear and pain. But she also knew that, as her first, he'd always be a part of her. Even after his death she thought of him frequently and couldn't stop herself from making up stories about what may have happened if he had lived. And, she knew that if she had not spent those desperate moments with him she would not have been so affected by his death.

She didn't understand boys

Between her extreme shyness, her anti-luck with Stephen, her intense but emotionally dissatisfying relationship with Jack, and the general ineptitude of the boys in her house it was no small wonder that Mandy had no idea how to deal with or interact with the opposite gender in any way other than friendship. After Jack, she'd completely given up on boys. She avoided them, for the most part, for several years after graduation. When Bernard came along, she didn't know what to make of it and was confused as to why she found it both easy and hard to relate to him.

She wasn't sure initially if she really wanted to be a part of the 2nd DA

She didn't want to die. She was afraid of death and of fighting. There was no streak of red in her blood. And she doubted that joining Neville was the best option; it certainly wasn't logical. And she didn't think anything good could come from following a Gryffindor. But the other girls in her year convinced her that fighting for the truth was the best. Once she joined, she didn't regret it, even after all the pain that year caused.

The hardest thing she ever learned was Projective Legilimency

Part of it was the shyness she'd had as a child coming back and part of it was the complete terror and depression following the battle. Not only was she afraid of the prospect of opening her mind to others, she wasn't sure if she wanted to be able to communicate with others again. Being alone seemed much safer. And, as she'd spent most of her young childhood with just herself and her stories, the loneliness was comforting. Not only was it more challenging than anything she'd done at Hogwarts, it cost her more emotionally than most people would have ever guessed.

Bernard Dunstan probably saved her from retreating into herself after the Battle of Hogwarts

Mandy hated the mental strain of projecting her thoughts towards other people so much that, in general, she stayed silent. But Bernard was different. He _made_ her answer his questions and use projective legilimency and she hated him for it at first. But, as time went on, she began to appreciate him for more than just another broken soldier and even as more than just a friend. Similar to, but different than, how Jason had pulled her out of her shell when she was younger, Bernard reached out and showed her the world again. He was broken and she loved him. She was broken, and he loved her. Only with him was her loneliness abated

Until he almost bit one of their children, she didn't mind at all that her husband had partial lycanthropy

She didn't like it, per se, but she dealt with it. His case wasn't too bad and it was a constant in a life that seemed so out of grasp. She knew what to expect and it was predictable in its unpredictability. The waxing and waning of the moon's cycle and how it corresponded to her husband's mood was mathematical and soothing. It was never a problem until he got so wrapped up in his work one month that he forgot to take his potion. By the time she reminded him his mood was already too bad due to the proximity of night fall that he lashed out, hitting her and nearly biting one of their children.

It almost killed her when she Bernie that he had to leave

It was for the safety of herself and their children, but nothing had ever hurt her so much as telling him that she didn't want to see or hear from him for at least a month. She didn't know how to react so she told her children that Daddy had gone on a long business trip and spent the entire month barely sleeping, not writing, and hardly eating. When he came back she didn't know whether to rejoice or tell him to leave for good. In the end, he made an unbreakable vow that he would never go without his potion as long as the children were in the house. No matter what.

She'd always really wanted to be a novelist; and she became one.

Mandy's parents told her that many little girls wanted to be writers when they grew up, but Mandy knew she was different. There wasn't a day that went by that she did not make up a story for something and she had a talent for putting words on parchment. Her first novel, _Evanesco_, was a war-time love story and an instant best seller.

The only piece of nonfiction she wrote was the story of the DA

At Bernie's suggestion that it may be cathartic, she wrote down the story of the DA during her 7th year at Hogwarts. Every last detail exactly as she remembered it. But she never showed the final product to anybody, not even Bernie. It seemed exploitive, somehow. Instead she locked what could've been her ticket to fame and fortune in a safe in the back of her closet, to remain a secret for the rest of her life.


End file.
